Roll Your Own SDR
If you have software-defined radio hardware and you are only using someone elses’ software, you are missing out on half of the fun. [Tech Minds] shows you how easy it …read more Continue reading Roll Your Own SDR
Author Archives: Al Williams
Hubless E-Bike is Nostalgic
[Chris Makes Stuff] is an aptly named channel. His recent video shows how he took a kid’s electric motorcycle toy and built a “penny farthing” bicycle. You might not know …read more Continue reading Hubless E-Bike is Nostalgic
Forget the Altair! Remember the Mark-8!
Calling any one computer the first hobby computer is fraught with peril. Most people think the MITS Altair 8800, first featured in Popular Electronics back in January 1975, was the …read more Continue reading Forget the Altair! Remember the Mark-8!
Inside Electronic Gain Control
Normally, if you want to control the gain of an amplifier, you’ll use a variable resistor. You know, like a volume control. But what if you want to control the …read more Continue reading Inside Electronic Gain Control
Repairing an HP Power Supply
One of the interesting things about living in modern times is that a confluence of the Internet and rapid changes in the electronics industry means that test gear that used …read more Continue reading Repairing an HP Power Supply
Quick Negative Voltage for an Op Amp
It is a classic problem when designing with op amps: you need the output to go to zero, but — for most op amps — you can’t quite get down …read more Continue reading Quick Negative Voltage for an Op Amp
The Nintendo Switch CPU Exposed
Ever wonder what’s inside a Nintendo Switch? Well, the chip is an Nvidia Tegra X1. However, if you peel back a layer, there are four ARM CPU cores inside — …read more Continue reading The Nintendo Switch CPU Exposed
Porting CP/M to a Z80 Thing
It is hard to describe the Brother SuperPowerNote. It looks like a big old Z80-based laptop, but it says it is a notebook. The label on it says (with lots …read more Continue reading Porting CP/M to a Z80 Thing
x86 ENTER: What’s that Second Parameter?
[Raymond Chen] wondered why the x86 ENTER instruction had a strange second parameter that seems to always be set to zero. If you’ve ever wondered, [Raymond] explains what he learned …read more Continue reading x86 ENTER: What’s that Second Parameter?
Can Google’s New AI Read Your Datasheets for You?
We’ve seen a lot of AI tools lately, and, of course, we know they aren’t really smart, but they sure fool people into thinking they are actually intelligent. Of course, …read more Continue reading Can Google’s New AI Read Your Datasheets for You?